February 8 – Scottish giants and runaway league leaders Celtic almost doubled their revenue for the first half financial period to end December 2016 to £61.2 million. This is an increase of £31.4 million on the 2015 figure, the reward for qualifying for the big money group stages of the Champions League.
The figures released in a financial statement to the Stock Exchange show profit from trading at £21.4 million (compared to £1.6 million for the same period in 2015).
The revenue increase was primarily driven by TV, multimedia and other commercial activities which trebled with Champions League participation to £29.9 million. Three home games against Man City, Barcelona and Borussia Mönchengladbach boosted match day and stadium revenue by 52% from £14.8 million to £22.6 million.
Merchandise sales were up 16% to £8.7 million.
The club under new manager Brendan Rodgers spent £9.5 million on acquiring new players (Scott Sinclair, Moussa Dembele, Kolo Touré, Christian Gamboa and Dorus de Vries) and recouped £2 million from the sale of Stefan Johansen to Fulham.
The latest 6-month revenue figure beats the revenue figure for the whole of 2015 which stood at £53 million. In his statement to the Stock Exchange, chairman Ian Bankier said: “We do not expect the same level of financial performance in the second half of 2017. In this period we will play fewer home fixtures and no European games. Our objective for the remainder of the year is to win the SPFL Premiership, secure the Scottish Cup and build towards the European qualifiers in the summer.”
The importance of the Champions League to the financial performance of the club emphasises the concern and financial inequality over the new qualification rules that take qualification opportunities away from the smaller nations in favour of the top three ranked leagues in Europe who will be guaranteed four Champions League places each in the group stages.
Celtic currently lead the Scottish Premier League by 27 points and are on course for their first league, League Cup and Scottish FA Cup treble since 2001.
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